Banning smoking in public places also cuts the amount of people who light up at home, research has suggested.

Smokers are likely to impose “home bans” after anti-smoking laws come into force, the report in the journal Tobacco Control claimed.

Researchers carried out surveys on 4,634 smokers in Ireland, France, Germany and the Netherlands between 2003-4 and 2008-9.

After bans on smoking in public places came into force, the rate of those who didn’t smoke at home rose by 25% in Ireland, 17% in France, 38% in Germany and 28% in the Netherlands.

Home bans were more popular when the smoker planned to give up and a child was born.

Experts said: “Opponents of workplace or public smoking bans have argued smoke-free policies - albeit intended to protect non-smokers from tobacco smoke - could lead to displacement of smoking into the home and hence even increase the second-hand smoke exposure of non-smoking family members and, most importantly, children.”

But their report suggested the opposite was true - that public smoking bans promote similar bans at home.

Scotland banned smoking in enclosed workplaces in 2006, with the rest of the UK following the year after.